The high temperatures favour the cultivation of certain crops, in particular, farmers say, hot peppers.
The Ranitović family, who live near Ruma in Vojvodina, grows not only one of the hottest chilli peppers in the world, but also the smallest and most expensive.
The ‘Mother of All Peppers’, as they call it, is native to South America, germinates and grows slowly, and only reaches maturity at high temperatures. A 6-millimetre-long fruit has a maximum weight of half a gram.
“The smallest chilli pepper in the world is called Aji Charapita, and it is also the most expensive on the world market; a kilogramme of this dried pepper goes up to 20,000 euros. It’s easy to grow it here, there are no problems, it’s just that it’s tiny, so it takes a lot of time to pick it and a lot of work to harvest it,’ Svetlana Gligorić Ranitović says.
In the beginning, Svetlana bought the seeds abroad; the biggest investment was building a greenhouse. The plants are disease-resistant, they are not treated with chemicals and they just need a lot of heat and water.
“I have been growing hot peppers for four or five years now and there are not many chilli pepper growers in Serbia. Growing chilli peppers is very interesting, because of their different colours, shapes, and levels of spiciness, and you can even make good money from selling them. I have over 80 different species. They are plants from hot regions, usually from Brazil and Mexico, and they also thrive here,’ says Svetlana.
The hottest chilli pepper in the world, the Carolina Reaper, also grows in Srem (Vojvodina). The hotness of this pepper stands at 2 million Scoville units, which is two 100 times hotter than local peppers. Chilli peppers are healthy, but only when consumed in moderation. They are harvested until October and very often wait out the winter in jars.
(Naslovi.net, 24.07.2022)
Photo credits: Pexel